Boycott
Boycott and Petition to Drecom, Summer 2013 Beginning on 22 July 2013 and extending for an indefinite period of at least 2 or 3 Main Events, most of the Rank A and B Guilds in the game, 47 so far, and many other players are joining together to pressure Drecom to improve Reign of Dragons game. There are two parts to the Campaign: #Protest by Boycotting Reign of Dragons #Communicate their demands to Drecom and launch a Signature Drive ##submit a Petition as a Support Request to Drecom, using the Support Ticket number as a reference ##launch a Signature Drive, so individual Players may sign onto the Petition by submitting their own Support Requests to Drecom, referencing the Petition's Support Ticket number Why Boycott? RoD is a constantly evolving game, we like this and we would not play it for long if it were otherwise. What we do not like are some of the directions in which the game is evolving. In the early events Rank A was usually the top 100 players, as time went on we started seeing events where rank A was the top 50 players, and recently we have had events where rank A is only the top 10 players. We all understand that the top ranks are meant to be exclusive, but the margin of exclusivity is getting a bit lopsided. When the game was new and had 400,000 downloads the top 100 players (A rank) in an event were the top 0.025% of players...now Rod has around 2 million downloads and the top 10 players (A rank) in an event represent 0.0005% of the population. Over the past several months, Guild rewards have gotten progressively worse as RoD trys to goad players into spending small fortunes for personal rewards instead of allowing them to attempty to gain rewards via cooperation and teamwork. ' The last events Guild rewards were nothing short of a slap in the face,' forcing us compete with their own guildmates for a shot at the better rewards. In some A rank guilds players were ranked A for overall individual score, and yet they received worse Guild rewards than certain members of B ranked guilds due to having to compete with their fellow A ranked Guildmates. In addition to all of the above, RoD is also employing another brand new tactic upon us. The state of the Game now with respect to Base UR evolved to LR cards is exactly as it was in the early days with respect to base MR evolved to UR cards. Yet instead of being able to complete a LR card by ranking A (which is shrinking) players must now rank A in 3-4 consecutive events. During the first collisseum event, players that spent $100 on Tourney potions were gauranteed 4x Samyaza (the strongest card in the game at that time). Now players must spend $400 or more to rank A, and do it 3-4 times in a row to receive a reward equivalent to what Samyaza was at that time. The Advent of the Bazaar was a godsend, and the game would probably be long dead were it not here. Have you noticed however that the number of tradeable stamina and power potions available in game has dropped to almost zero? Battle rewards used to give tradeable potions. Event rewards used to give tradeable potions. RoD has steadily been cutting off access to tradeable potions (the most commonly used commodity on the bazaar) for months now, leaving most players with only one option...the Gem store. What this represents is a way for RoD to make money on the same card multiple times, Player X buys gems to get the card pack and decides he doesn't need a card. He puts it up for sale and then Player Y buys gems to get potions to buy the card. This is getting a bit long now and there are many more points to be made, but I will save them for the comments section. The end result is that currently 6 or more of the top 10 guilds are going to be staging a general boycott on the next event(s). We do understand that several players have spent a lot of RL money to acquire 2x UR cards and we will not fault them for trying to complete their LR prize. In theory I speak for 200 of the top 400 money spenders in this game when I say that we will not be buying Gems for pots or increasingly mandatory Advantage cards for the forseeable future. -Grim-<> Boycott The Boycott started on 21 July 2013, just after the end of the Dawn of Crimson Bands Guild vs. Guild event that ended at 11pm EST on 21 July. The Boycott will continue for AT LEAST 2 Main Events and for an indefinite period after, until Drecom addresses the Petition demands. Boycotting Players will not: #purchase Gems from Gree or purchase in-game items with Gems; #participate in ALL Events, Minor events included Drecom LISTENS Following the initial Petition and light Boycott, Drecom responded with: #News - More Tradeable Cards #Gem Special (for iOS users) #Pots Special (roughly 1/2 off) WE SPEAK We aren't after temporary Specials. We are after real Change. If you thought a small Petition and semi-Boycott had an effect, we are on Full Boycott, NO EXCEPTIONS. Drecom Petition This is a Petition to change how you organize and schedule the game Reign of Dragons. We represent players who are concerned that, if you continue to run this game the way you have been running it recently, the game will lose many valuable players and cease to exist. We want new players who join the game to stay, because the game is fun and not too expensive. Below, we list grievances and suggestions we hope you will address or take into consideration. If you address our grievances and suggestions, we believe this game will be more interesting, enjoyable to play and less expensive, either because prices lower or we may partly recoup our investment by selling or trading items in Bazaar. Until you address these, we shall demonstrate our resolve by not participating in main events, buying Gems from Gree or spending Gems on card packs or in-game items. 1. We need more time between events: at least three days between main events and events that require one type of potion (stamina or power). Events using the same type of potion should never be scheduled back to back. Back to back events do not give us enough time to accumulate resources needed to compete effectively and players need a break from intense struggles. Guild vs. Guild (GvG) events, in particular, are very intense and require many power potions; GvG events should not start earlier than 6 weeks after the end of the last GvG event. Players who fatigue leave the game. Players who are forced to buy potions in order to compete run out of money and leave the game. If you scheduled more time between events you would also have more time to find and fix bugs before events or new functions go live in the game. 2. We need better game play: events should require tactics, the ability to create decks containing general or new-release cards that make a difference and provide a winning advantage. Events such as Guild vs. Guild or events that include Raid Bosses, where a button press uses one to three power potions do not require tactics, thought or skill. The game play of these events is boring and expensive. Advantage cards that provide a score boost greater than the best configured and most powerful deck are boring and expensive. Players who have decks containing better cards, such as the latest LR cards, the most expensive cards in the game, should have an advantage in events but their advantage is lost to players with Advantage cards or more potions to press the Bonus buttons. Elixirs, such as Flame, that erase the inherent advantage of a better deck do not encourage users to build good decks. Please: a. design events that allow users to obtain a tactical advantage using strategy and well-built decks, not bugs in the system due to rapid roll-out; b. provide a more limited boost to Advantage cards and allow Advantage cards to retain their value by carrying their Advantage, possibly at a lower percentage, to future events; and, c. Reduce the percentage boost for Elixirs, so users with the best decks in the game still have a competitive advantage. 3. We need reduced prices for Gems and more consistent pricing based on an exchange rate tied to USD. Players buying Gems in the GBP and EUR pay more for Gems than players paying in USD; depending on the exchange rate, players paying in AUD pay less. $1.29 USD for 100 Gems is too expensive for us to afford when buying potions, when potions are required for almost every user action and potions are the de-facto in-game currency for buying cards in the Bazaar. We believe that if you reduce the price of Gems you will increase your net income from the game because more people will buy Gems and in-game items. We are generally insisting on .50 cents per 100 gems. And we also would like to see a card shop that sells users cards of your choosing that may have sentimental value within the game, and can be sold for a suitable amount of gems because the chances of drawing for days, hours, or weeks may present us with not even one card with any value whatsoever. The chances of drawing cards of great rarity from expensive card packs should increase along with the price you are purchasing for (ex: buying a premium 10 pack will have a 95% chance of drawing a mega rare than a 5 pack with a 40% chance. 4. We need you to give out more Bazaar (tradeable) potions, especially Power Potions, as in-game rewards. All reward Potions should be Bazaar Potions. We need a Bazaar market where we can not only trade cards effectively but recoup the investment we made on card packs. The current Bazaar market is now broken: potions are worth so much now that buying cards through purchase of card packs is more expensive than buying cards on the Bazaar. This works against the incentive users have to buy card packs. The solution is to give away more Bazaar potions, so the value of a card in potions purchased from Gree is greater than the cost of purchasing the card from a card pack. For example, to guarantee a new UR base card, a user would have to spend $350 USD or more, but in the current Bazaar market that user could not sell that UR base card for the equivalent of $350 USD in potions. Users must be able to recoup part of the investment they have made in the game by either trading cards or selling cards on the Bazaar. 5. We need to be able to Trade cards effectively. 2 Tickets per day, as Log In Bonus and SNS Share Bonus, are too few for us to trade cards effectively. Complex trades involving multiple cards quickly use up our tickets. Card trading is a core feature of the game and a prime source of entertainment. Please: a. remove the 10-Ticket limitation; b. give us more Tickets as bonus items for Log In or Sharing; c. refund Bazaar Tickets after the timer on the Bazaar runs out or an Ally Only or Guild visible transaction is cancelled, but, to avoid abuse of the Bazaar, Tickets are not refundable if you cancel an open Bazaar (All) visible post; and, d. (if possible) add specialized visibility Bazaar tickets for Guild-level: we believe it would be very helpful and conducive to in-Guild trading if you provided Bazaar tickets specifically for in-Guild visibility trades. 6. We need to be able to build and trade good Event Reward cards. While there must be some delay before making Event Rewards tradeable that provides incentive to participate in the event and rank A or B, where tradeable cards on the Bazaar would be available with less effort, tradeable Event Rewards allow players with 1, 2 or 3 of the card to complete the card. With Event Rewards in an untradeable state for months, players with incomplete cards are left with cards that only take up space in their Card Albums. Users who spent a great deal of money or resources winning untradeable Event Rewards cannot recoup the investment they made in the event by selling those Reward cards on the Bazaar or trading them for other cards. Please make Event Reward cards tradeable soon after an Event is over. 7. Please do not change the Guild Leader (GL) of a guild based upon event results. The players organize themselves in guilds and having this organization changed based upon event results impedes the ability of players to determine a legitimate hierarchy for themselves. 8. Please extend the current Storyline Quests and add new ones. We hate the Unseen Barrier! 9. Please add feeder cards (Uncommon or Rare) cards for every Skill that a SR, MR or UR has. For example, Double Attack and Invincible skills are impossible to Max because there are no existing feeders. 10. Please allow untradeable Card Pack cards to be Exhibited, such as Hel, Beigas the Sword and Archangel of Judgement. These cards have been untradeable since the beginning of the game and compared to more recent cards they provide less incentive to buy Card Packs. 11. Please, make event Mega Rare cards tradeable. It makes no sense why event Super Rares and event Rares are tradeable, while event Mega Rares are not. Signature Drive To register your support of the Boycott and Petition, submit a Support Request to Drecom referencing the Ticket number. Copy and paste the text below: Reign of Dragons: Please Refer to Ticket Number (#130724-000795). I am registering my support and agreement with the Petition to improve Reign of Dragons. How To Submit a Support Request Copy the text under Signature Drive, which is seen above. If you have access to a desktop, use this form: https://www.drecom.co.jp/contact/RoD/ Note: the Referral Code is the Referral Code for your RoD user (the one you give to people to refer them to the game). In the RoD App: (link to visual guide here: Navigation Gree Support) #press Menu #in the bottom right, press the hexagonal blue Gree icon; this will bring up the Gree app #in the Gree app you will start in the Home screen for the Reign of Dragons game. Scroll down to the middle and tap on About This App to expand the secondary menu #in the secondary menu under About This App, tap on Terms of Use/Help #in the Terms of Use/Help screen, tap on Contact Us #in the Inquiry page, press the Confirm button saying you read Help before contacting Drecom #in the Contact Us page, paste the Signature Drive you just copied into the Details text box #press Submit Updates Response to Initial Petition, 23 July 2013 The initial petition was submitted on 23 July 2013. Drecom was quick to respond. Less than 12 hours later, Drecom responded to Petitioners: Dear User, This is Drecom application support. Thank you for contacting us. Regarding your inquiry, We do appreciate your valuable suggestions. All members of RoD team will take into consideration your petition as future reference for better service. We will do everything within our limits to meet your expectations. However we need to consider carefully about game organization,therefore we need some time for its improvement. We appreciate your patience and understanding. We shall continue to provide you with our best service. Thank you for preferring Drecom applications. We have their attention. Great job so far! Also, many event MR cards (The Cardinal's Judge, Cherufe, etc.) became tradeable. Plan of Action following Drecom's initial response #Keep sending in your Signatures to the Petition! #The Boycott is still on because they haven't changed anything in the game. We realize that some items may require time roll out (time to develop and bug test), but they need to know we are resolute.